Using an HDTV as a laptop monitor?

[Wall-E]

My heads spinning from trying to research this, all the info I find seems to just lead me back and forth and all over the place in between.

I've been wanting to plug my laptop into a larger monitor for some time, then yesterday I ran across a really good deal for what I assumed would just work so I jumped on the deal (it was time sensitive) and ordered it. I then went looking for a new cable to order and realized my plans may not work at all after reading A LOT.

After reading through here all day it seems clear if anyone can steer me right it would be someone here.

Here's the specs on my laptop:
•Dell Latitude D820
•4GB Memory
•Intel T2500 2.0GHz Core Duo
•GeForce Go 7400 512MB video
•Max 1920X1200 resolution

It only has the old school HD15 D-sub VGA female video output on the back (no DIV in or out).

I ordered a Samsung T240HD 24” 1080p LCD HDTV Display.

I wasn't planning to use it as a TV at all, just a 24" monitor, but figured since it had the TV tuners built in this would be a bonus even if I didn't use it. Plus the price was less with better specs than some other 24" actual monitors I was looking at.

Here's the specs on the TV so no one has to look anything up...

Display:
•Resolution: 1920 x 1200
•Contrast Ratio: 10,000:1 / 20000:1 (DC)
•Response time: 5 ms

Signal input:
•Video Signal: analog RGB, DVI, HDMI, component , TV (digital TV/analog TV)
•Sync. Signal: separate H/V, composite
•Connector: 15pin D-sub, DVI-D, 2HDMI, component, DTV Tuner, optical out

During my impulse buy, I seen the TV supported the same resolution as my video card, and it had a 15pin D-sub input, so I figured it was a no brainer, just plug in a VGA cable and instant 24" monitor.

Then I decided I'd make it even better by instead using a HD15 D-sub male w/ mini jack audio to HDMI and plug it into the audio and D-sub jacks of the laptop to one of the HDMI ports on the new monitor.

Seems no such cable configuration exists. Actually I did find one place that has this exact cable, but then they specifically notate that this cable will not work to connect a computer to an HDTV.

After even more searching and reading I'm left confused yes, but more importantly wondering if this is going to work as a monitor at all, even if I just use a simple VGA cable to connect my laptop VGA port to the female D-sub port on the TV?

Thanks in advance

[Supreme2k]

Plug your laptop into the monitor and let us know how it goes. We can't do that for you.

Get a stereo male-to-male cord for you laptop audio out to the monitor input (next to the PC input).

[Wall-E]

I was wanting to know if its going to work before I even accept the shipment (I don't have it here yet, its in UPS hands). If its not going to work I think I'll refuse shipment on it to lesson my return hassles. I already have a 52" HDTV, I have no desire for just a little 24" HDTV if its not going to work as a monitor for me.

Though, $200 for this new in the box was a pretty good deal on it. Since I bought mine I see the company selling them have already raised the price back up. Even at a good deal it still is worthless to me if it won't do what I want from it. Not sure I want to dump more money into this plan for a docking station which would have a DIV port on it and a half size PCI slot I may be able to use with another video card. Besides, I dumped my desktops to reduce the bulk, a docking station would be counter productive for that effort.

[edDV]

Normal connection is

VGA to VGA for video
Set resolution to 1920 x 1200 if TV and laptop supports it over VGA.
Check TV manual for other accepted resolutions.

headphone jack to RCA (Red/White) for audio.

$200 new is a very good price for that TV.

[Nelson37]

Cable connector converters do not offer any improvement, you still got whatever the weakest element in the chain is. Since the monitor and PC both have VGA connectors, and on the PC side VGA is all you got, using a converter is pointless.

DVI or HDMI output on the PC would be better. You do not have either. You need a monitor with VGA input. This one has that. That is as good as it is going to get.

Why would you suggest that the VGA would somehow not work?

That price for that size of monitor WITH tuner is very, very low. There are PC monitors with TV tuners built-in, and then there are TVs with PC connections added on. They are NOT the same thing.

There is only one way to properly evaluate whether on-screen PC text will be readable, crisp and clear. You will know very, very quickly. Return should not be a problem, save the box and packing materials.

[Wall-E]

edDV,
No problem setting the resolution to 1920X1200, this is already the resolution I currently use on my laptop, I love all the extra screen real estate. You get use to things seeming so small quickly, then there is no going back to larger resolutions.

It was actually $207, internet purchase so no tax, but I did pay $49.99 additional for 2nd day air shipping (should be here Thursday 5-28), so I guess in reality I should say I actually paid $256.99 for it. Still a good deal I thought. The website I bought it on was doing a clearance countdown. They run special prices for limited amounts of time, however as the popularity of people checking out the link, or actually buying an item goes up, their server software progressively raises the price accordingly. I just happened to catch it right when the countdown began. I'd been looking for a 24" monitor for a couple weeks so I had an idea of current prices. I done a quick google price check on this one and knew it was one of those deals too good to pass up.

Nelson37,
I get what you mean about NOT being the same thing. I race motocross and know they make bikes for the dirt, bikes for the street, and some bikes that can go on street or dirt. Dirt bikes are great for the dirt, street bikes are great for the street, the dual purpose bikes aren't good on either. I hope this doesn't turn out to be the same type of thing. Guess I'll know when I get it then.

Thanks, I guess that only makes sense that my end result is only going to be as good as the weakest link... garbage in garbage out. I guess the only reason I thought it may be better going VGA to HDMI with an adapter was that there was some magic processing that took place in the TV from the input of the HDMI connection and maybe some better shielding in the HDMI portion of the cable (if they made such a thing).

As far as why I think it won't work wasn't my thought at first, hence the reason I bought it for a VGA connection. It was while researching further that I ran across discussions on the Dell forums I believe that some people were saying the output of the laptop was not capable of connecting to an external monitor larger than 20". Its so hard to tell anymore if something will or will not work, or if the person claiming it to not work just wasn't doing something correctly.

[edDV]

Use VGA. Any conversion would be very expensive and lossy. Cheaper to buy a new laptop.

[gll99]

If the tv is native "•Resolution: 1920 x 1200" and your adapter supports this res then although analog, it will work over vga.

I bought a 24" monitor (not a tv) which supports dvi but the display adapter on the pc I have it on right now only has dual vga and it works fine at that res. I use the cleartype font which smooths the edges.

Eventually the monitor will be switched to my other PC but so far I love it. No complaints over vga.

[Wall-E]

Cheaper to buy a new laptop.

I don't know about that, I don't buy cheap laptops. This one with all my selected upgrades was $2700. I was looking at buying a new one for Windows 7, but I've been running the Release Candidate of Windows 7 on this one for over a month now and it handles the new Operating System perfectly. The new laptop with features I'd want would be well over $3500. Thats the cost of a decent used car, insane.

I may just go with a docking station after all if the VGA quality is poor. Dell sells them for $199, but I found a place that sells them for only $89. This has special connections on the bottom of the laptop that bypass the external outputs. The docking station comes with a built in DVI output, though it doesn't specify DVI-I or -D, I'd guess its likely DVI-I since that was what was around in this area 3 years ago.

The TV is DVI-D so if a DVI-I to HDMI, or even DVI-I to DVI-D adapter was used would this be of any benefit over just using the VGA Sub-D connections? I guess I understand now why there is no such thing as Sub-D to HDMI adapter available, the cable can't convert the signal from the analog to digital, no idea what I was thinking with that plan when it came to mind, guess I wasn't thinking.

I decided I'll keep it even if the text is bad, for that price, it will still serve the purpose of using it for Netflix streamed movies from my PC as a second monitor so it might not be so bad. I'm just happy to hear the consensus here seems to favor it should at least work (even if poorly) off the VGA to VGA option.

Already use the clear type fonts so no problems there, appreciate your words of encouragement for me.

[edDV]

VGA should be fine but the docking station is the next step.

A DVI-I connector has pins for both DVI-D and VGA. There is no electronic conversion. The cables just use the DVI-D or VGA pins.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Visual_Interface

I think you will be happy with VGA.

[Wall-E]

I was referring to my initial thoughts of a VGA to HDMI conversion cable that the search for prompted all of this. I guess I wasn't thinking about the analog to digital problem of going from VGA analog to HDMI digital.

I'm getting pretty excited about anticipating its arrival, guess everyone here knows what its like waiting for a new toy to come. I keep reading good review after good review on this thing so that's certainly promising. The few complaints are absolutely trivial issues like not being wall mountable, they knew this before they bought it, Samsung makes it very clear, so how do you complain about something you knew about when you made the purchase?

I see ecost.com has the price of these coming back down again after shooting up briefly, they have some more recertified ones down to $259, that's still considerably cheaper than I see anyone else selling this for. I better be careful, I might end up ordering another one. They also have the T240 (not T240HD) which is just the monitor without the tuner for $217. Surveying my desk space right now trying to convence myself it would be nice having both matching side by side, the T240 and the T240HD on to use as just the monitor the other to watch TV on at the same time. I probably better not though, I may need to eat yet this week.

At the moment I just about have my finger on the buy button for that $89 docking station. I just ordered a Logitech diNovo Edge bluetooth keyboard from ecost.com for $97 (its $179 everywhere else), this way I won't have to have my laptop open while using the new monitor. The docking station may have to wait another week.

Thanks for the help, I was getting a little stressed about this possibly not working at all. You've all given me my excitement and kid at christmas anticipation back.

[edDV]

Once again there is no practical solution to get from analog RGBHV VGA to digital DVI-D short of a full scan converter which would be expensive and lossy. Forget that as an option. Buy that docking station if only $89. Be done with it. The docking station probably has digital audio outputs as well.

[Wall-E]

Oh WOW!

Does it ever work!

I am literaly blown away by this. I just plugged it in and had to do nothing, there is my computer screen, flashed "auto adjusting" on the screen and wow! I don't know what to say but WOW. Oh my does this work good and this is with just the VGA cables connected. I thought my built in laptop monitor was good, but this thing is just unreal. I can read the monitor all the way across the room, clearly.

I've never been this blown away by anything, this is so cool seeing my computer on this huge monitor. I have never seen this level of detail before, the color, the brightness, the sharpness. My 52" HDTV just seemed to be good at magnifying flaws, this is sweet! This was the best couple hundred bucks I have ever spent!

Thanks again everyone, I have to go play around with this a little bit now...

[edDV]

Good.

How does the ATSC broadcast signal look?

[Snakebyte1]

I think he's happy with his purchase

[Wall-E]

I still need to run cable to my desk to hook my cable up to it, however I couldn't wait to try it out so I dusted off an old indoor antenna I had around and plugged it in. I had no idea we had free 1080i HDTV channels available in my area over the air. They look great, better than my cable actually. I think its better as a computer monitor than a TV, everything is so clear as a monitor, the TV (even for just air broadcast) looks great, but the monitor just blows it away.

I looked at a lot of large monitors in our local stores, no one had this particular one for me to see, but this is far superior to any of the monitors I seen in local stores. The amazing thing is I didn't have to do adjustments to get it to look this great, just plugged it in and out of the box it looks great.

On the TV portion I did notice everyone looked a little sun burnt, a touch too much red but it seemed to be just in skin tones. It adjusted in the menu and now looks perfect.

I even checked it out here for "eyeball calibration"...

http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/monitor_calibration.htm

My laptop monitor is the best Dell offers and it did great, but this new Samsung monitor just blows it away on all the visual tests they have on that web site, and thats with out of the box settings.

Power button is a little weird, there's no button, you just touch the clear frame, seems to be either requiring some getting use to or it doesn't always sense when your touching it, but I just use the remote any how.

Speakers could sound better, or maybe I just need to adjust the EQ in the menu. Wasn't expecting much from a small TV's speakers though. A cheap set of computer speakers will give wider separation. I think the onboard speakers don't sound very good because they are under the monitor pointing down, so the sound has to reflect off the desk. No complaints though, I wasn't expecting some awesome sound from them anyhow.

I think the only negative thing I'd complain about on it is there is no sleep button on the remote. You have to dig through layers of the menu to get at and set the sleep function. No problem if used primarily as a monitor, but could be a negative to someone looking for just a small bedroom TV.

I didn't buy it to use as a TV though, that was just a bonus. I bought it as a monitor and for that purpose I am extremely pleased with it. Very happy with it.

Kind of strange having to move my head and my eyes to look across my computer screen. I almost considered the same but in 26". I think I'm glad I didn't, this one seems to be the perfect balance of not too big, not too small for me.

I think I'm going to order the Samsung T240 next week (this one is the T240HD) its this identical unit but without the TV tuner portion. I'm so happy with this thing I can put the two of them side by side and use one as a monitor while I watch TV or movies on the other. The T240 is also even a little cheaper in cost. Two of these setting side by side would look great and make me far less productive and more distracted, a bonus when your home just trying to relax.

[edDV]

The one concern I had for my use was no listing of QAM tuner (digital cable) capability.

Does the manual say anything about scanning cable QAM channels? That feature would get you the locals in digital SD/HD without a cable box.

[Wall-E]

It has a ATSC/QAM tuner built in and according to cnet's review on it the QAM tuner is supposed to be top notch. CNET editor has great things to say about it but seems partial to the comparable Dell 24", which costs considerably more and does not have any tuner built into it. I had considered that Dell model, but was finding it tough to swallow the price Dell wants for it. Then in one of our local electronics shop they had the Dell on display, it was nice, but not price difference nice enough to the other cheaper models they were selling. With this Samsung in front of me now I think its considerably better than the Dell 2408WFP I seen in a store. Even if both were the same exact price (higher or lower), I'd easily of chosen this one over the Dell.

[stiltman]

[edDV]

I see him spamming about 6 threads.

BYW, Ethernet cable as insufficient shielding for VGA. It may work for low resolutions over limited distance.